02:52USA: Rio Treaty nations agree to extra sanctions against Venezuela govt.
Leaders from several Latin American countries agreed in New York City on Monday to investigate and detain associates and senior officials of the Venezuelan government who are suspected of corruption, human rights abuse and drug trafficking.
Members of the so-called Rio Treaty - including United States, Canada and several Latin American and Caribbean nations - voted 16-1 in favour of the measures. Uruguay voted against, Trinidad and Tobago abstained, and Cuba was absent.
"We are in front the only interamerican instrument that gives us the juridical strengh to use measures that are not allowed by other instruments," said Colombian Foreign Minister Carlos Holmes Trujillo during a meeting on the margins of the United Nations General Assembly.
The Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance, commonly known as the Rio Treaty, is a mutual defense pact that was signed in 1947 and has not been activated since the September 11, 2001 attacks.
02:52Leaders from several Latin American countries agreed in New York City on Monday to investigate and detain associates and senior officials of the Venezuelan government who are suspected of corruption, human rights abuse and drug trafficking.
Members of the so-called Rio Treaty - including United States, Canada and several Latin American and Caribbean nations - voted 16-1 in favour of the measures. Uruguay voted against, Trinidad and Tobago abstained, and Cuba was absent.
"We are in front the only interamerican instrument that gives us the juridical strengh to use measures that are not allowed by other instruments," said Colombian Foreign Minister Carlos Holmes Trujillo during a meeting on the margins of the United Nations General Assembly.
The Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance, commonly known as the Rio Treaty, is a mutual defense pact that was signed in 1947 and has not been activated since the September 11, 2001 attacks.